CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak said Tuesday in a televised address that the Rafah border crossing will remain closed until Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas regains control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas.
“We in Egypt are not going to contribute to perpetuating the rift [between Hamas and the PA] by opening the Rafah crossing in the absence of the Palestinian Authority and EU observers in violation of the 2005 deal, he said.
Egypt has come under heavy criticism, especially from Arab quarters, for its refusal to open the border crossing during the continued Israeli offensive on Gaza which has claimed the lives of 360 Gazans since Saturday.
The Egyptian consulate in Aden, Yemen was stormed by protestors.
A Yemeni security official said the protesters stormed the front gate, threw computers from windows, and climbed the two-story building to the roof and set fire to the Egyptian flag and hung up the Palestinian flag on top of the building.
Under the 2005 agreement between Egypt, the PA and Israel, the crossing can only be opened in the presence of EU monitors, who fled when Hamas took over the territory in June 2007.
Mubarak did criticize the Israeli offensive, saying, “We say to Israel that we reject and condemn its assaults which must cease immediately.
Egypt did finally receive some 22 wounded Gazans on Monday evening and aid convoys from Egypt, Qatar and Libya managed to pass through into Gaza after having been held up at the border.
Protests are planned for today in Al-Arish against the Israeli offensive on Gaza and the continued closure of the Rafah border crossing.
Spontaneous protests by students broke out Tuesday in the areas of Al-Arish and Sheikh Zowayed and Rafah near the border with Gaza. However, today’s protest is organized by the popular committee for the rights of Sinai citizens, which is spearheaded by the North Sinai branch of the Tagammu party.
Secretary-general of the party in Al-Arish Ahsraf El Hefny told Daily News Egypt that the protest was being organized to highlight three main demands on their part, the reopening of the crossing, halting the export of Egyptian gas to Israel and the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.
Hefny also commented on Mubarak’s statements, indicating that these types of comments were causing further upset to the residents near the border.
“It is also important to wipe the Egyptian people clean of the stain of betrayal. Egyptians are against the closure of the crossing and do not want to help Israel against the Palestinians. They call us traitors but it is not the people who are traitors. The protests make this clear, he said.
For the second day in a row, orders were given to evacuate homes near the border due to the possibility of Israeli airstrikes on the fence but at press time things remained calm on the border.
On Sunday evening, Israeli airstrikes caused breaches in the fence which led some 150 Palestinians to enter Egyptian territory. Clashes ensued and an Egyptian police officer and a Palestinian man were killed in the gunfire.
